Lewis Hayden was born on December 2, 1811, and died on April 7, 1889. He escaped slavery in Kentucky with his family and traveled to Canada. Later, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he started a school for African Americans. In Boston, he worked as an abolitionist, lecturer, businessman, and politician. Before the American Civil War, he and his wife, Harriet Hayden, helped many enslaved people who were fleeing to freedom. They often provided shelter to these individuals at their home through the Underground Railroad.

In 1873, Hayden was elected as a Republican representative from Boston to the Massachusetts state legislature. He also helped create several black lodges of Freemasons. The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House, located on the north side of Beacon Hill, is now a National Historic Site on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston.

Biography

Lewis Hayden was born into slavery in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1811. He was one of 25 children in his family. His mother had African, European, and Native American ancestry. Native American slavery had been banned in the 18th century. If his mother could prove her Native American heritage, she might have been able to legally claim freedom for herself and her children. At the time, a rule called partus sequitur ventrem meant that children inherited their mother’s legal status. Children of white and Native American mothers were born free. Lewis’s father was a slave who was sold away when he was very young.

Hayden was first owned by a man named Rev. Adam Rankin, a Presbyterian minister. Rankin sold Hayden’s brothers and sisters before moving to Pennsylvania. He traded 10-year-old Hayden for two horses to a man who sold clocks. Traveling with his new owner, Hayden heard different views about slavery, including the idea that it was a crime. At 14, he met Marquis de Lafayette, a soldier from the American Revolution, who tipped his hat to Hayden. This made Hayden feel respected and strengthened his hatred of slavery.

In the mid-1830s, Hayden married Esther Harvey, who was also enslaved. She and their son were later sold to U.S. Senator Henry Clay, who sent them to the Deep South. Hayden never saw them again. In the 1840s, Hayden taught himself to read, even though his owner often whipped him.

Hayden asked men like Lewis Baxter and Thomas Grant to buy him. He proposed that they hire him out to earn money, with some of the earnings going toward buying his freedom. They agreed, and Hayden worked at Lexington’s Phoenix Hotel. He saved his earnings to buy his freedom.

By 1842, Hayden married Harriet Bell, who was also enslaved. He cared for her son, Joseph, as his stepson. Harriet and Joseph were owned by Patterson Bain. After his marriage, Hayden planned to escape to the North to protect his family.

In 1844, Hayden met Calvin Fairbank, a Methodist minister who helped enslaved people escape through the Underground Railroad. Fairbank asked Hayden, “Why do you want your freedom?” Hayden replied, “Because I am a man.” Fairbank and Delia Webster, a teacher from Vermont, helped Hayden and his family escape. They used flour to cover their faces to look white and hid Joseph under the seat during dangerous times. They traveled from Lexington to Ripley, Ohio, on a cold night. Abolitionists like John Rankin helped them continue north, eventually reaching Canada.

When Fairbank and Webster returned to Lexington, they were arrested. The driver was whipped 50 times until he confessed. Webster was jailed for two years but was pardoned. Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but after four years, he was pardoned when Hayden raised $650 from 160 people to pay his fine.

In 1845, the Haydens moved to Detroit, Michigan, a free state near Canada. From there, Hayden started a school for Black children and built the Colored Methodist Society Church (now Bethel Church). In 1846, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where many people supported ending slavery. He opened a clothing store on Cambridge Street.

In Massachusetts, Hayden worked as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. He collaborated with abolitionists like Erasmus Darwin Hudson and John M. Brown. In 1848, he wrote to the society: “You all know it is me jest three years from slavery … if I am not Wendell Phillips now, it ought not to appear what shall be. I shall do all I can to make myself a man.”

The Boston City Directory for 1849–50 listed Hayden as a lecturer. His home became a safe place for escaped slaves. Guests included Ellen and William Craft, who fled slavery in 1848. Hayden threatened to blow up his home with gunpowder if slave catchers tried to take the Crafts. Records show many people received help at his home between 1850 and 1860.

Hayden was visited by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a famous author. In 1849, he opened a clothing store at 107 Cambridge Street, which became the second-largest business owned by a Black man in Boston. A financial crisis in 1857 caused his business to fail, and he later sold jewelry to earn money.

Hayden was part of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which helped escaped slaves. He worked with William Lloyd Garrison and resisted the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. He was arrested for rescuing Shadrach Minkins in 1851 but was not convicted. He also helped in the rescue of Anthony Burns and opposed authorities in the case of Thomas Sims. He is believed to have killed U.S. Marshal James Batchelder.

Hayden supported John Brown before his raid on Harper’s Ferry. He also helped John A. Andrew, who later became governor of Massachusetts. In 1873, Hayden was elected to the Massachusetts General Court. He supported a statue honoring Crispus Attucks, a Black and Native American man killed in the Boston Massacre. He was too ill to attend the statue’s unveiling in 1888 but was celebrated by friends.

In the 1880s, Hayden helped Julius Caesar Chappelle enter Republican politics. Chappelle became a popular Republican leader.

Lewis and Harriet Hayden House

In 1849 or 1850, the Haydens moved into a house located at 66 Phillips (then Southac) Street in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood. In 1853, the house was bought by their colleague, Francis Jackson, who worked with the anti-slavery Vigilance Committee. The African American Museum suggested this may have been done to protect Hayden from being troubled because of his work with the Underground Railroad.

The Haydens often helped runaway enslaved people by providing them with shelter at their home, which also functioned as a boarding house. Records from the Boston Vigilance Committee, of which Lewis Hayden was a member, show that many people received help and safe shelter at the Hayden home between 1850 and 1860. In 1865, Harriet Hayden purchased the house from Francis Jackson's estate.

The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House has been named a National Historic Site. It is one of the locations on the Black Heritage Trail, which is managed by the National Park Service. Today, the house remains a private home and is not open to the public for visits.